Michael Barker (British Army officer)

Lieutenant-General Michael George Henry Barker CB, DSO (1884 – 1960) was a British Army general.

Military career

Barker, born 1884 in Wells District, Somerset, served in the Militia during the Second Boer War before accepted a commission in The Lincolnshire Regiment in 1903.^[1] Barker served throughout the First World War with the Lincolnshire Regiment and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in 1917. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, York and Lancaster Regiment from 1927 to 1931 before being promoted to Brigadier as a staff officer at Eastern Command. From 1936 to 1939 he was Director of Recruiting and Organization at the War Office.^[1]

He served as commander of I Corps in 1940, before being replaced by Lieutenant-General Harold Alexander. His performance there was undistinguished; his subordinate Montgomery remarked that "only a madman would give a corps to Barker." His active military service was finished, and he served for a year as head of Aldershot Command before retiring from the army later that year.^[1]

Barker died in 1960 in Colchester, Essex.

References

Sources

• Biographical Dictionary of British Generals of the Second World War, Nick Smart. ISBN 1-84415-049-6.